How to Conduct User Interviews + 11 Tools to Help You

If you're a product designer, then at some point, you'll need to conduct user interviews.

It's a great way to get feedback about your product and understand how users interact with it. However, you must first know how to do that properly.

Lucky for you, we've put together a quick guide you'll need to prepare effective user interviews. And if that's not enough, we've also included 11 top tools that can help make the process easier (not to mention faster).

You don't want to miss it.

User interviews: a brief overview

User interviews are an important part of the design process. As designers and product experts, it is crucial that you understand your users, their needs and preferences, and how they currently interact with the products and services you create.

The design of a product is not about its aesthetics and physical appearance. It’s about finding the sweet spot between people's desires, business viability, and technical feasibility. And user interviews help you get this valuable insight.

By asking targeted questions and listening closely to the answers, you get access to an amazing information resource. It can also act as a starting point for further research, such as surveys or focus groups.

At their core, user interviews are fairly simple: a one-on-one conversation between a designer and one or more users, where the goal is to learn more about how a person uses your products or services in their everyday lives. 

During these conversations, you might ask a wide range of questions about different aspects of their experience, from specific technical details to usability issues to demographic information.

Interviewing users: steps to follow

Before you can begin interviewing users for your project, there are a few important steps that you need to follow.

– Plan out the interview process so that you know exactly what questions to ask and how to analyze the results.

– Do some preliminary research on potential users. You might want to get a sense of their demographics and interests or even just check out their background.

– Schedule the interview in advance to ensure that you have plenty of time to ask all of your questions, taking into account any necessary follow-up or clarification.

– During the interview, be sure to speak clearly and ask open-ended questions that will help you understand what the users really need. Take detailed notes and pay close attention to body language.

– To present your findings to your client or team, analyze the data, and draft your conclusions.

Rules for conducting effective user interviews

There is just one golden rule when it comes to user interviews –

✨Pick the right tool for faster and more effective user interviews ✨

And the right tool, in this case, would be the one that lets you reach your target users easily and efficiently. At the right time.

You should definitely check out the following 11 tools, as they help you get even more out of interviewing your users.

Survicate

With Survicate, you feel like you're on vacation. There is almost nothing you have to do. Well, maybe, except for a few clicks. Simply choose your template (or start from scratch), customize your survey design, set up your distribution options– and voilà. You get an excellent add-on to user interviews.

Let’s look on your own:

What's in it?

• 125+ expert-designed survey templates
• Web, mobile, and email surveys, triggered by user behavior
• Easy survey builder (drag & drop)
• Robust set of integrations (Survicate integrates with HubSpot, Intercom, Slack, Mailchimp, Google Analytics, and many more)
• All in one place - survey creation, distribution, analysis, and action

You'll love it if…

If you value simple solutions that still provide a great set of features that you can use right away– without an uphill learning curve. And if you like fast, cool surveys that people enjoy filling out (and you enjoy making).

Costs a fortune?

No, it doesn’t. Survicate is an affordable solution for businesses of all sizes. The costs start at $89/mo. You can also choose a forever-free plan (that still offers complex features).

Magnolia

How about interviewing the users remotely? With tools like Magnolia, this is not a problem anymore. It makes it easy for you to create feedback sessions with participants using templates and a simple workflow. Get all your UX research needs in one place.

What's in it?

• Automated booking of user video sessions 
• Sync your Google or Outlook calendar to follow invites 
• Adding artifacts like sticky notes or Zoom recordings to transcript sessions
• Sharing findings with colleagues and clients

You'll love it if…

If you are looking for a tool that will streamline the booking of guided and unguided video sessions with users by synchronization with external calendars and tools. 

Costs a fortune?

No, it doesn’t. The cost of Magnolia per user per month ranges from $7 to $30. You can try it for a week for free.

Userfeel

The Userfeel user testing tool was created by UX researchers. That speaks for itself. It has both - advanced testing features and a panel of high-quality testers. Users' issues and frustrations are revealed, allowing you to improve your site's usability.

What's in it?

• Testing in over 40 languages on every device
• Unlimited screener questions
• 150K+ top-notch testers
• Google Speech API transcription of voice

You'll love it if…

You want to discover more than just bugs - you want to discover real users' problems and needs through their interactions with your website or app.

Costs a fortune?

You can choose between two plans. Having your own testers will cost $30 per session (60 minutes per session as standard). If you want to make use of the Userfeel panel of testers, the tool costs $60 per tester.

UserZoom

The UserZoom app is like Zoom on steroids– specifically designed for business purposes. UserZoom's interviews allow you to conduct thorough user research in a fast-paced, high-quality manner that speeds up and scales user experience practices.

What's in it?

• Scheduling session times based on your availability preferences
• Automated transcription of recorded sessions 
• Video highlights without video editing software
• Synced notes during playback of the session 

You'll love it if…

You want to conduct mixed research methods, recruit participants around the globe, and measure user experience, all with just one tool. It's also ideal if you need UX research consultancy throughout the entire testing process.

Costs a fortune?

There is no pricing information available on the vendor's website. However, for example, users on G2 seem to view UserZoom rather as a costly tool.

Scribe

Scribe takes the pain out of creating visual documentation by automatically generating step-by-step guides for you. Simply click “record” and do your process, then Scribe gives back a beautifully crafted document with text & screenshots that can be customized to meet any need - all without breaking a sweat.

What's in it?

• Recording on Chrome, Edge, and Desktop
• A how-to guide is automatically generated
• Ability to add text, annotations, and custom branding
• Integrations with Notion, Confluence, and Zendesk

You'll love it if…

You plan to use it for documenting internal processes, creating training materials, and onboarding new employees.

Costs a fortune?

The basic plan is free, and it includes an unlimited number of pages and guides. An upgraded plan costs $29 per month per user. Scribe also offers a scalable plan for enterprises.

User Interviews

User Interviews is designed to make your product and design decisions easier. It can assist you in finding the right testers by providing smart targeting options and supplying you with relevant information. It has the potential to become a core part of your research process.

What's in it?

• Monitoring scam participants with a fraud detection system
• Smart targeting system to find participants who match your criteria, e.g., job titles, skills, consumer behavior, and more
• Dedicated project coordinator to provide personal support
• Tools for automating scheduling, paying incentives, and messaging participants

You'll love it if…

You need to create a complex user research tool to streamline your future product decisions.

Costs a fortune?

It depends on the plan you choose. For individuals and small teams, the costs may not exceed $45 (B2C) and $90 (B2B) per session. If you want a yearly plan with 60 or 150 sessions, then you have to reckon with the cost between $175-$325 per month. There is also the option of a dedicated plan with a customized number of sessions.

Enjoy HQ

A customer's feedback can come from many different directions, which can be frustrating. With Enjoy HQ, you can get this one superpower– organizing customer feedback quickly and easily. Put tags, labels, and hundreds of filters on your customer data and put an end to complicated work. Once and for all.

What's in it?

• Hundreds of filters for advanced search
• Research practice standardization templates
• Labels, tags, and properties to organize the data
• A limitless amount of storage for all file types and sizes

You'll love it if…

It's important for you to organize your research data, improve the collaboration of your team (and easily share insights with all stakeholders).

Costs a fortune?

There is no charge for up to two admin seats. Afterward, you must pay $1,000 per month, billed annually. A scalable plan is also available.

Trymata (formerly TryMyUI)

With Trymata user testing, you can measure your outcomes with a variety of built-in task metrics and overall usability scores. User-narrated session recordings and video transcripts– nothing is beyond its reach.

What's in it?

• Targeting the types of users you want to reach
• Launching any product's user tests easily
• Ability to run tests on desktop, Android & iOS devices
• Testing of websites, mobile apps, prototypes, and more
• Filtering by demographics and custom screening questions

You'll love it if…

Getting key insights rapidly and sharing them with the rest of your team is important to you. Also, if you want to gain a holistic perspective on your digital experience.

Costs a fortune?

Three plans are available, with the cheapest one costing $333 a month. For two weeks, you can try the tool for free or book a demo instead. The vendor also offers custom plans.

Grain

It's easier than ever to understand and capture the key moments from your user interviews with Grain, the meeting insights tool. In just a few clicks, you can record and transcribe any video meeting– and then share your findings with your team in real-time.

What's in it?

• Setting record rules
• Real-time transcriptions (with nine different languages)
• Live collaboration to create highlights together
• Native integrations with Slack, Salesforce, and Notion 

You'll love it if…

You don’t want to spend hours listening and taking notes on your user interviews.

Costs a fortune?

No, it doesn’t. Grain is free for up to 100 meetings and transcripts. Users on the paid plan pay just $19 per month. Business owners who need more control and support can choose the customizable plan.

Calendly 

Schedule your user interviews smarter with Calendly. It’s an automation tool that lets you plan your meetings easily. Simply set your meeting availability and share your Calendly link with users so they can choose a time that works for them. This ensures that you meet with users at times that work for them.

What's in it?

• Automated email reminders and follow-ups
• Integrations and extensions to boost productivity
• Team-wide standardization of calendar usage

You'll love it if…

Your team needs to schedule user interviews without fractions and easily find the right time and date without wasting time sending tons of emails.

Costs a fortune?

Monthly prices range from $8 to $16 per seat. Alternatively, you can choose the free basic plan.

Happy Scribe

Do you need to translate the transcript of the user interview? Probably no other tool can do this better than Happy Scribe. With more than 45 languages covered, it offers both machine and human-made transcription and subtitling services.

What's in it?

• Automated translation of transcriptions into the most common languages 
• Multiple export formats
• No limits on uploads
• Interactive editors
• Collaboration features - view-only or edit mode

You'll love it if…

You want to translate the transcripts of your user interviews easily or automatically add subtitles to your video meetings.

Costs a fortune?

The price varies depending on the service. The automatic version costs $0.20/min, the human-made costs $2/min, and the human translation (for subtitles)– is $20.85/min.

Get the most out of user interviews

User interviews are a powerful tool that can help you understand your users and their real desires.

Business is all about people. Be sure you know who they are.

➡️Start connecting with users– today. Survicate is willing to help you create a survey that generates results. Get yours now - starting at $53/mo.